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Professor Ralph Schroeder

Senior Research Fellow

Professor
Ralph Schroeder

Senior Research Fellow

About

Ralph Schroeder was formerly Professor in the School of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University in Gothenburg (Sweden). He completed his PhD about Max Weber at the LSE in 1988. His publications include Rethinking Science, Technology and Social Change (Stanford University Press, 2007) and Being There Together: Social Interaction in Virtual Environments (Oxford University Press, 2010). He is also the author of ‘An Age of Limits: Social Theory for the 21st Century’ (Palgrave Macmillan 2013) and, with Eric T. Meyer, of ‘Knowledge Machines: Digital Transformations of the Sciences and Humanities’ (MIT Press 2015).

His most recent book is ‘Social Theory after the Internet‘ and he is also working on big data in the social sciences.

Areas of Interest for Doctoral Supervision

Big data, virtual environments, digital media, right-wing populism

Research Interests

Virtual environments, big data, digital media, right-wing populism, sociology of science and technology

Positions at the OII

  • Programme Director of the MSc in Social Science of the Internet, July 2018 - January 2023
  • Director of Research, October 2009 - September 2012
  • Senior Research Fellow, January 2009 -
  • MSc Programme Director, January 2009 - October 2016
  • James Martin Research Fellow, September 2004 - December 2008

Research

Integrity Statement

In the past five years, my research has been funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the German Ministry of Education, the Swedish Defence Research Agency (for a study of bots in the Swedish election in 2018), the European Union under Horizon 2020, the Tencent Internet and Society Institute, the European Commission DG Connect, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Sloan Foundation.

Recordings

45107242692374823668

News & Press

Teaching

Current Courses

Foundations of Social Data Science

This course will introduce to some of the fundamental questions that have been raised in this domain across the social sciences.

Digital Media in India and China

This course will examine the internet in India and China from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including ethnographies of urban and rural life and the politics of online mobilization. It will cover fandom cultures, innovation policies, and divides

Artificial Intelligence for Policymaking

This course examines how AI can be used to improve policymaking and governance. The course will explore how AI can be used to develop, evaluate, and implement better policies; as well as the technical and organizational conditions that enable AI-driven policymaking.